Hi Everyone !!
A few posts back I wrote about how we were struggling to get Mason to sleep in his own cot/bed, and that we were going to try "sleep training" as most call it!! but it really wasn't for us at all!
After 1 really bad sleepless night (for me anyway!) I thought to myself "How can I make co-sleeping a little less cramped!!" so I searched for co-sleeping beds, but the results came back with all the bedside sleepers you can buy when you have a newborn not a 1 year old! I even priced out buying a new bed, a super-king size bed! but the prices were way out of our budget! so that was out the question!
Finally after a lot of talking (and arguing !) with the other half my mam came up with the idea to take the side of his cot bed and push it right up to our bed. I though this was a brilliant idea it means I could still co-sleep and wake up next to my baby but still have room to actually sleep! But daddy didn't like that idea.......he did have a point though, what would be solving one problem would be making another because he would have go in our room straight away when he went to bed and its not learning him to stay in his own bedroom. Plus we didn't have a problem with him going to bed it was just once he woke up he wouldn't settle again till he was in our bed.
So I said OK well there is only one other option then, we take the side off and try him out sleeping in his own room in the toddler bed!......
I can honestly say its the best decision I have made so far as a parent!! He sleeps so much better as do I!!
So this is the set up during the day.........
And on a night time.........
My mam had a spare single mattress she gave me to put down next to his bed in case he rolled out, and a spare single duvet and cover for me in case i ended up sleeping in the bed next to him. When he goes to bed on a night I give him his bottle sitting on the mattress then move him to the bed (he does have a pillow as well not shown on this picture) while he is dozing off but not fast asleep. I tend to hang around there for a few minutes till he is out for the count because a few times he has gone to feel my face to check I'm still there and iv had to race back to the bed from the bedroom door!!
I then build up the mattress with soft cushions and blankets till the duvet is in line with his bed so if he was to roll he would just be rolling onto cushions at the same level as his bed. I also cover the corner of the bedside table shown in the bottom right hand side of the picture, with his changing mat, just in case he does make it out the bed without me realising and bumps his head off the table.
So far he has been brilliant and only managed to roll out the bed twice and once was on top of me anyway lol! There is still a few nights I have to go into the room and stay in there on the mattress (which is actually comfier than my bed!) but it not usually until around 5am whereas before he was waking up and coming in our room from about 11:30pm! I'm still not sleeping properly not until I really get used to him being in a big bed because I'm constantly starting at the baby monitor in case he wakes up and tries to get out of bed! but I'm not as tired because I am getting much more sleep than before! I think the main reason why he is settling through the night when he wakes is because I can get right up next to him like I would if he was in our bed. Before when the cot side was on I couldn't get any where near him to comfort him with out picking him out then once he was out he wouldn't go back in!
I seriously didn't think that I would be taking the side off my just turned 1 year old cot but this worked for us, and If there's one thing we all know about parenting ....You do what works for YOU!!!
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